(As Adapted from “Diaries...) INTRODUCTION My mother believes I’m mad–muy loco. Why else, she asks, would I have nearly drowned myself, on rivers and ocean, a total of six times? My pitch to her is the practical aspect of all those close calls: skill-and-ability-building, mom, so I can enjoy all my water-borne adventures more safely! And I clarify to her that yes, I was pretty mad–angry mad, for almost a decade, about a lot of things. I was mad...that our country was doing more to fuel global warming and less to halt it, than most other highly civilized nations on the planet. I was mad...that our federal administration was hell-bent on using strategically-placed politicos to desecrate all manner of scientific studies about the environment–especially any which might otherwise reveal anti-business or anti-development findings. I was mad...that our Endangered Species Act, national wildlife refuges, national parks, and national forests were being dismantled or abrogated at every opportunity, by shortsighted politicians thumbing their noses at our long tradition of protecting such environmental treasures. I was mad...that despite billions in tax money poured into its rescue, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta of California was pushed onto its deathbed, through ever-increasing water exports in the face of numerous scientific warnings to the contrary. I was mad...that we were well on our way to paving over an astonishing 2,000 square miles of the California landscape with grape vineyards, an agricultural crop-type with almost no habitat value for native wildlife and huge risks to stream ecosystems (and their anadromous fish), along the forested coast. And I was mad...that while our tax money was being spent for band-aid approaches to stream fish habitat restoration along the Gualala and other coastal California rivers, a blind eye was aimed at the larger, cumulative losses of ecosystem-functioning driving fish population declines. Yes, prior to January 2009, there were plenty of environmental issues to be mad about and few reasons for optimism. This dilemma fostered hard choices. Which noble fights, if any, should be pursued? And what type of approach had the best chance to really make a difference? But, as those of you who were also mad know, the recent change of administration is changing a lot. The environmental pendulum has begun to swing in a new direction. Already, some egregious environmental issues are being rectified. And others, for the first time in years, are showing glimmers of hope for science-based solutions. However, now, a new threat is emerging: environmentalism could push the pendulum too far back to the left. And if science-trumping ideology on behalf of the environment becomes the norm, ensuing elections will push us back to the unsightly place we so recently left. Now that would be something to be mad about...